Trial ordered for Enbridge pipeline protester

A case against an oil pipeline protester will be returned to Calhoun County Circuit Court after an appeals court ruling.

The case against Christopher Wahmhoff was ordered back to court for trial by the Michigan Appeals Court. In a ruling Tuesday that was released Thursday, the appeals court said it was reversing the decision by Circuit Judge James Kingsley to dismiss the resisting and obstructing police charge against Wahmhoff.

Kingsley ruled in January and affirmed his decision in February that Wahmhoff could not be charged because sheriff department deputies did not order him to leave the pipe.

Wahmhoff entered a section of Enbridge Inc. pipeline near Division Drive and 16-Mile Road in Fredonia Township on June 24 to protest construction. The company is installing a new line to parallel one that broke and spilled about a million gallons of oil onto the ground and into Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River in 2010.

His attorney, John Royal of Detroit, argued that Wahmhoff should not be charged because evidence showed “there was never an unequivocal order that you come out forthwith. He was not ordered out of the pipe at all. He only requested him to come out.”

But prosecutors argued that Wahmhoff was ordered out and told he would be arrested.

After Kingsley’s affirmation of his ruling, prosecutors said they were undecided on whether they would dismiss the charges and start the case again or appeal. They appealed and the higher court said it believed there was evidence to establish probable cause that Wahmhoff committed the offense and ordered the case back to Kingsley for trial.

No new dates were immediately set.

Call Trace Christenson at 966-0685. Follow him on Twittter: @TSChristenson